Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

Trump’s Past Crisis Experiences Unlikely To Help Him Against A Pandemic

The issues that President Donald Trump has dealt with before tended to involve human adversaries on who he could deploy his trademark bluster-based crisis management style. But that won't work as well against a virus. Meanwhile, governors grow alarmed with Trump's insistence that the federal government take a back seat to states' response.

The New York Times:
Used To Meeting Challenges With Bluster And Force, Trump Confronts A Crisis Unlike Any Before
During his campaign for the White House in 2016, President Trump’s advisers briefly tried to run through with him how he would address a large-scale disaster if he won. What, for instance, would he have done during Hurricane Katrina? “I would have fixed that,” Mr. Trump replied with certitude, referring to the government’s bungled rescue and recovery efforts, according to a campaign official who was present for the exchange. “I would have come up with a much better response.” How? He did not say. He just asserted it would have been better and advisers did not press him to elaborate. (Baker and Haberman, 3/21)

The Washington Post:
Governors And Mayors In Growing Uproar Over Trump’s Lagging Coronavirus Response
President Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic sparked uproar and alarm among governors and mayors on Sunday as Trump and his administration’s top advisers continued to make confusing statements about the federal government’s scramble to confront the crisis, including whether he will force private industry to mass produce needed medical items. As deaths climbed and ahead of a potentially dire week, Trump — who has sought to cast himself as a wartime leader — reacted to criticism that his administration has blundered with a torrent of soaring boasts and searing grievances. (Costa and Gregg, 3/22)

The Associated Press:
Presidents In Health Crises: Trump More Hands-On Than Many
Woodrow Wilson was more focused on the end of World War I than a flu virus that was making its way around the globe, ultimately sickening hundreds of thousands of Americans, including the president himself. George W. Bush stood with a bullhorn on a pile of rubble after the 9/11 attacks on lower Manhattan and promised that the people who were responsible “will hear all of us soon.” Barack Obama was in office for just a few months when the first reports came in about the H1N1 virus, which would eventually be declared a pandemic like today’s new coronavirus. (Superville, 3/2)

The New York Times:
‘Wartime President’? Trump Rewrites History In An Election Year
With the economy faltering and the political landscape unsettled as the coronavirus death toll climbs, a stark and unavoidable question now confronts President Trump and his advisers: Can he save his campaign for re-election when so much is suddenly going so wrong? After three years of Republicans’ championing signs of financial prosperity that were to be Mr. Trump’s chief re-election argument, the president has never needed a new message to voters as he does now, not to mention luck. (Karni, Haberman and Epstein, 3/22)

Politico:
Trump Wants To Defeat Coronavirus — And Make Sure He Gets Credit
President Donald Trump spent the weekend vacillating between casting himself as an empathetic leader and wartime president as the coronavirus spreads through the United States. But above all, he still wants credit. Credit for cutting off travel from China. Credit for giving up money to run for office. Credit for uniting the nation. (Cook, 3/22)

The Washington Post:
In Age Of Trump, Coronavirus Tries American Belief That Country Can Meet Any Challenge
As the novel coronavirus spreads through communities across the country, it poses a critical question: Can America’s people, institutions and government collectively rise to the occasion to defeat a once-in-a-generation crisis? With a global pandemic testing the country’s political, financial, social and moral fabric, there are growing signs that answering in the affirmative has become increasingly difficult. (Olorunnipa, Witte and Kim, 3/22)

The Associated Press:
Americans See Trump's Virus Response Through Partisan Lens
As restaurants across the country stacked chairs on tables and shut their doors to try to contain the deadly coronavirus, what would be the final visitors streamed into the Conservative Grounds coffee shop in Largo, Florida. Fox News played on the televisions. Patrons posed for photos in a replica of the Oval Office. An 80-year-old man, defying officials’ advice to stay home, beamed near a life-sized cutout of a grinning President Donald Trump. (Galofaro and Lush, 3/22)

Politico:
Illinois Gov. Pritzker Mocks Trump’s Coronavirus Efforts
In an escalating war of words Sunday, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker compared President Donald Trump to “the carnival barkers that are tweeting from the cheap seats. “Pritzker was responding to a critical tweet from Trump, who said the governor “and a very small group of certain other governors … shouldn’t be blaming the federal government for their own shortcomings. We are there to back you up should you fail, and always will be!” (Kapos and Kullgren, 3/22)

This is part of the KHN Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.

Thank you for your interest in supporting Kaiser Health News (KHN), the nation’s leading nonprofit newsroom focused on health and health policy. We distribute our journalism for free and without advertising through media partners of all sizes and in communities large and small. We appreciate all forms of engagement from our readers and listeners, and welcome your support.

KHN is an editorially independent program of KFF (formally, The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation). You can support KHN by making a contribution to KFF, a non-profit charitable organization that is not associated with Kaiser Permanente.

Click the button below to go to KFF’s donation page which will provide more information and FAQs. Thank you!